Field
Aspects of the present invention generally relate to an information processing apparatus, a processing system, an object moving system, and an object moving method.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, increasing number of robots are coming to perform an operation for picking out works (objects), which are randomly placed (stacked) without being arrayed, one by one from a pallet (box) and an operation for arranging works, on behalf of human operators in assembly lines of industrial products. A work moving system using such a robot captures an image of a plurality of works randomly placed in various orientations in the pallet (box) (imaging process). Then, the work moving system processes the image obtained by image capturing to acquire two- or three-dimensional information of the works. Then, the work moving system performs calculations for obtaining positions and orientations of the works using the acquired information to recognize positions and orientations of the works (recognition process). Then, the work moving system controls a robot manipulator so that recognized works are picked up from the pallet and arrayed (picking process).
When a specific work among a plurality of randomly placed works is held and moved and in a case where the held work contacts other work or in a case where weight imbalance occurs between the other works due to movement of the specific work, the state of the plurality of the randomly placed other works collapses. Consequently, positions and orientations of the plurality of the randomly placed other works are changed. Therefore, the imaging process and the recognition process need to be performed again before moving the next work. Accordingly, the total time (takt time) for holding and moving a plurality of works is prolonged.
For solving this problem, Japanese Patent No. 4199264 discusses a provision of a determination unit for determining whether a state of randomly stacked works has changed. Japanese Patent No. 4199264 discusses that when the state of the randomly stacked works is determined, to have not changed, the works are detected using an image captured in the past and the next work is picked out without performing an imaging process. Japanese Patent No. 5201411 discusses that after a work is picked out from a pallet, a two-dimensional image of works is captured and, when the difference between the captured image and another two-dimensional image captured before picking out the work is within an allowable range, the next work is picked out without distance measurement performed with laser.
However, according to the inventions discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4199264 and Japanese Patent No. 5201411, there is required a process of capturing images of the randomly stacked works and recognizing positions of the works again and then moving the works, in a case where the state of the randomly stacked works collapses after movement of a work performed from where works are randomly placed. More specifically, it is necessary to perform image capturing and recognition of works each time when the state of randomly stacked works collapses. Further, it takes a time for determining whether the state of randomly stacked works has changed even if the state of randomly stacked works has not collapsed. Therefore, according to the inventions discussed in Japanese Patent No. 4199264 and Japanese Patent No. 5201411, it still takes a long period of time from when a plurality of works is captured until when movement of a work is completed.